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Electronic Frontier Foundation

Computer security and the lack of computer security is a fundamental issue that underpins much of how the Internet does (and doesn't) function. Many of the policy issues that EFF works on are linked to security in deep ways including privacy and anonymity, DRM, censorship, and network neutrality.

EFF works directly on a wide range of security issues including increased deployment of cryptographic protocols through projects like Certbot; improving the security of those protocols; offering legal assistance to researchers through our Coders' Rights Project; offering practical security advice to activists through the surveillance self-defense project; and working on the development of new security standards.

Security Topics

Security Highlights

vintage keys in a web of nodes
Issues

Encrypting the Web

The web has largely switched from non-secure HTTP to the more secure HTTPS protocol. All web servers use one of these two protocols to get web pages from the server to your browser. HTTP has serious problems that make it vulnerable to eavesdropping and content hijacking. HTTPS fixes most of...
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Resource

Surveillance Self-Defense

Description: 
Surveillance Self-Defense is EFF's online guide to defending yourself and your friends from surveillance by using secure technology and developing careful practices.
Issues

Coders' Rights Project

EFF's Coders' Rights Project protects programmers and developers engaged in cutting-edge exploration of technology. Security and encryption researchers help build a safer future for all of us using digital technologies, but too many legitimate researchers face serious legal challenges that prevent or inhibit their work. These challenges come from laws...

Security Updates

Secure Messaging Month logo
Deeplinks Blog by Gennie Gebhart | March 27, 2018

Why We Can’t Give You A Recommendation

No single messaging app can perfectly meet everyone’s security and communication needs, so we can’t make a recommendation without considering the details of a particular person’s or group’s situation. Straightforward answers are rarely correct for everyone—and if they’re correct now, they might not be correct in the future.At time of...

Secure Messaging Month logo
Deeplinks Blog by Nate Cardozo, Gennie Gebhart, Erica Portnoy | March 26, 2018

Secure Messaging? More Like A Secure Mess.

There is no such thing as a perfect or one-size-fits-all messaging app. For users, a messenger that is reasonable for one person could be dangerous for another. And for developers, there is no single correct way to balance security features, usability, and the countless other variables that go into making...

Deeplinks Blog by David Ruiz | March 22, 2018

Responsibility Deflected, the CLOUD Act Passes

UPDATE, March 23, 2018: President Donald Trump signed the $1.3 trillion government spending bill—which includes the CLOUD Act—into law Friday morning. “People deserve the right to a better process.”Those are the words of Jim McGovern, representative for Massachusetts and member of the House of Representatives Committee on Rules, when, after...

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